Further thoughts on Ribena
Posted by kathryn in Health News and Food Labelling
I was thinking about the recent Ribena apology last night and in particular the statement:
The testing method used to determine the level of Vitamin C was unreliable and we were unaware of this at the time. Testing methods revealed that Vitamin C levels in a number of our ‘ready-to-drink’ products deteriorated over time and did not meet the Vitamin C level stated on the nutritional information on the pack.
This seems to me disingenuous at best. Why were Ribena’s testing methods unreliable, when they could be caught out by two teenagers working on a school project ? I’m assuming Ribena have a modern manufacturing facility and some decent equipment. Whereas the teenagers were working at school and using relatively simple scientific methods.
Plus, it’s not unknown that vitamin C can be fragile, that it can degrade over time and in response to heat and light. They should have been checking for this anyway.
11 May, 2007
Comments
My first reaction on seeing the ad was “bullshit”. Literally, that was the first word out of my mouth.
That statement from Ribena reminded me strongly of the enquiry into the Children Overboard thing some years ago. “Peter Reith is told in Darwin by Brigadier Silverstone that the video does not show childern in the water. He replies “Well, we’d better not see the video!” “
I suspect that GSK, having determined a method of testing that gave the results they were looking for, discouraged anyone from mentioning or thinking about ways in which their tests might be improved to be more representative, so that they could claim what they are now claiming with an (almost) straight face.
Feel The Love, how great to hear from you. Yes, GSK’s position is one that’s been trailblazed by politicians in recent years. They’ve been caught out, are trying to make the best of it, but would, I’m sure not hesitate to do the same thing again.
It puts the responsibility for keeping manufacturers on their toes back on us, the consumer, which is hardly a fair fight.
The guy that is apologising to the viewer in the advert is the same guy (actor) in the current Nicorette advert (speaking from the golf cart).
The actor in the the Ribena advert is given a title
which would appear to be bogusas he is just an actor.The BS gets deeper!
Hi Frogger – according to all the news reports I’ve seen the Ribena advert does feature John Sayers, the Managing Director of GlaxoSmithKline Australia and not an actor – his photograph is here.
It may be a coincidental resemblance to the actor in the Nicorette advert.
Hi All
I too find the information in the apology leaving me with more questions.
In particular…..blackcurrants in Ribena contain four times the Vitamin C of oranges….I’m wondering if you can explain what they actually meant to say. Are they talking about actual juice, concentrate weight for weight?
Would love to hear.
Best Wishes
David
Hi there David, Ribena have done a good job of muddying the waters, so everyone is confused!. The trickery is around the phrase “the blackcurrants in Ribena contain four times the vitamin C of oranges.
Blackcurrants in general (and not just the ones in Ribena) are very high in vitamin C. If you compared 100ml of orange juice and 100ml of blackcurrant juice, then it’s the blackcurrant juice which contains more vitamin C.
However, blackcurrant juice is incredibly tart, way too sour for most peoples’ palate. So the Ribena ready-do-drink (RTD) products are made with blackcurrant juice PLUS water and a whole heap of sugar. So Ribena RTD are made with blackcurrant juice and that juice does contain four times the vitamin C of oranges. BUT when you analyse the whole drink (with the water and sugar added), 100ml of Ribena RTD does NOT contain four times the vitamin C or orange juice, in fact it contains a lot less.
Clear as mud?
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